Dropbox Adds New Scanning Functionality to App

Scan documents in Dropbox: With document scanning, you can now use the Dropbox mobile app to capture and organize scans from whiteboards, receipts, and sketches, so your ideas are right at your fingertips. Among the new features are a nifty photo-scanning feature that uses optical character recognition to parse the text in written documents, streamlined document and photo management workflows, new sharing and file history tools, and support for commenting on stored content.

Dropbox just dumped a ton of new productivity features on users of its file storage and collaboration service that are all aimed at making it easier for people to get work done within its applications. There will also be a new Microsoft Office button in the app, where users can quickly create Word, PowerPoint and Excel files that save to Dropbox automatically. Dropbox did this to keep users of its Dropbox Basic service from filling up their storage with photos.

The update also adds one-click sharing to Dropbox from files and folders on desktop devices, so users no longer have to open Web browsers or copy links to e-mails to provide co-workers and others with access to shared documents. Previously, this was only available in the Dropbox for Business early access program. The service will use machine learning to try and recognize when documents are the subject of uploaded photos (whether through the iOS app or other means) and offer to convert and process them to scans. On that note, the San Francisco-based company today announced a bevy of new features created to improve user productivity and the way large teams work together. Now you can share a single file with specific people, who will need to log in to see it. And with view-only access for shared folders, now available for all users, you can also let people follow along. Our simple, yet powerful new sharing features give you more control.

Dropbox users can now comment on the content inside a document or image, so the people they’re working with can know exactly what is being discussed.

Overall, these changes seem like a positive sign for Dropbox’s free users, especially at a time when the company is focused on developing its paid, business-focused offerings.

Not surprisingly, Dropbox, which has been increasingly focusing its efforts on corporate users, also talked up some new features that might appeal to them. Last week at the Bloomberg Technology Conference, Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston said Dropbox isn’t profitable yet but is free-cash-flow positive, a milestone Jackson attributed to revenue growth and greater discipline on costs.

Join the PC World newsletter!